Future Islands tour again, but this time they’re riding sea monsters.

A little over a year ago, Future Islands holed up in a historic waterfront house in North Carolina, and when they weren’t watching sunrises or collecting sand dollars or writing cryptic letters on old paper, stuffing them into glass bottles and tossing them into the ocean, they recorded their third album. They released the appropriately-titled On the Water back in October. We were pretty jazzed about those 11 tracks of new wave-ish, cinematic synth-pop, and still pretty jazzed once December rolled around.

So, now that summer’s creeping closer and closer, maybe Future Islands will relax for a bit? Maybe they’ll head back to the beach just to have picnics or play badminton by the water?

Nope. They’re touring. Again. They just wrapped up a European tour and before that a tour of the Southeast, and now they’re headed up the East Coast. Maybe they’ll at least build a sand castle or two along the way?

Get ready for some entertainment, Aussies, ‘Mericans, and Canucks! Neil Hamburger, the nation’s number one source of laffs and entertaining, will be mainlining smiles directly into the populace on his upcoming summer tour. Expect to be awed by his whooping cough, insightful bon mots, and entertaining gags! Let me tell ya, this one looks like the real thing. I can’t wait to read all about it on the entertainment blogs and retweets.

Last week, we told you about Dirty Projectors’ new album, Swing Lo Magellan. This week, we’ve got dates! That’s right, Dirty Projectors, the Radiohead of Brooklyn groups with multi-vocalists, have just announced a North American tour in support of the forthcoming sixth album. Limited pre-order tickets are happening right here, right now, so get on it.

Swing Lo Magellan, the group’s Hail to the Thief, is due July 10 on Domino. Listen to its first single at the Chocolate Grinder.

Does the world really need so many Gatekeepers? I say we gather at least a few of these individuals and put their implied skills to the test — by having them police the border between the United States and Mexico. You might know the Bristolian Gatekeeper for his appearances on various dubstep compilations, such as 2007’s Soundboy Punishments from Skull Disco, or Surgeon’s Fabric 53 mix, released in 2010. However, that’s not the Gatekeeper we’re talking about here. You might know Gatekeeper by her other name — Zuul — who possesses Sigourney Weaver’s character in the 1984 classic Ghostbusters. However, despite her seemingly Nordic growls, she hasn’t yet explored the Satanic realm of record label contracts, so that’s not the Gatekeeper we’re talking about, either.

Gatekeeper (for this article, specifically) are a New York-based electronic duo intent on revitalizing the fear that originated in the 1970s, of artificially intelligent machines chasing you down suburban streets, when all you really wanted was a friendly robot servant to take out the garbage on the appropriate days. On July 17, Gatekeeper will be following up their 2010 EP Giza (which made our top album covers of that year) with the release of their debut full-length Exo, via Hippos in Tanks. That’s a label. They aren’t actually delivering their album through some inconceivable army of tank-driving hippopotami.

A point of intrigue about this album: according to Pitchfork, a “first-person gaming environment” will accompany the release, where one can explore “various worlds inspired by tracks on the album.” Now, let’s all reserve judgment.

We are shocked and deeply disappointed to post this notice: Cynthia Dall passed away at her home in Sacramento last Thursday.

Cynthia was a muse that crossed over into actual-artist-dom. Her self was her original art, a spirit and image that was inspirational on first sight. The ’90s were a great time to start playing music when you didn’t really know the first thing about it other than you liked it, and Cynthia was able to use her unique abilities along with her incredible energy to inspire those around her to help her make two really great albums.

It hasn’t sunken in yet that we won’t be hearing from Cindy again. Though she hadn’t released a new album in ten years, she called in regularly, sometimes to talk about her music and plans, sometimes to talk about everything BUT music and plans. She was an enormous fan of the world, and there were few topics that didn’t engage her in some way. Even outrage was conveyed with an enormous vivacity that could not be suppressed. It was this energy that lifted her up above the melancholy that infused her songs, and the devastating visions they often conveyed.

When Cynthia rang us the week before last with an update on the progress of new demos, we were glad to know it; glad to think of her getting her music together and to think of another chapter in the Dall Saga. It is stunning not merely because of the loss of that vision and that unheard record; more stunning and hurtful is to know that we will won’t be talking to her anymore. A light has gone from this world — and we hope you will join us in hoping that it has gone to place of greater peace.

Goodbye Cynthia — we’ll carry your love and joy and sorrow with us until we too are gone.

The idler wheel may be wiser than the driver of the screw, but the rotating wheel is definitely FUNNER! In fact it must be the MOST FUNNEST, because Fiona Apple just can’t get enough of that tour/press circuit, announcing via Pitchfork (suddenly her most ardent supporter and promoter…) a full-on North American tour that sweeps across this broken land + Canada during June and July. I think I just heard Feist punch a wall :(

The tour is in support of Apple’s forthcoming album on Epic, The Idler Wheel is wiser than the Driver of the Screw, and Whipping Cords will serve you more than Ropes will ever do, out June 19 and falling way short, title-wise, of 1999’s When the pawn hits the conflicts he thinks like a king what he knows throws the blows when he goes to the fight and he’ll win the whole thing ‘fore he enters the ring there’s no body to batter when your mind is your might so when you go solo, you hold your own hand and remember that depth is the greatest of heights and if you know where you stand, then you know where to land and if you fall it won’t matter, cause you’ll know that you’re right. In between those two albums was 2005’s Extraordinary Machine, which famously scrapped its original Jon Brion production for a completely different sound in the hands of megaproducers Scott Storch, Scott Stapp, Scotch Storp, and Staph Scars. See the tracklisting for The Idler Wheel followed by the tourdates below, and be sure to RSVP on Facebook so Apple and Zuckerberg know you’re coming.

The Idler Wheel is wiser than the Driver of the Screw, and Whipping Cords will serve you more than Ropes will ever do tracklisting: